​Amazon playing hardball with Disney, Hachette as it comes off $126M loss

Amazon is embroiled in closed-door negotiations with major publisher Hachette Book Group — and it wants authors to help it win the battle.

In a lengthy letter to all Kindle Direct Publishing authors this weekend, Amazon described its plight to lower the “unjustifiably high” e-book prices. It asked authors to email Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch and tell him to stop overcharging for ebooks.

The four-month dispute with Hachette isn’t the only hardball Amazon is playing — the Seattle online retailer is also denying pre-orders of some upcoming Disney flicks, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Faced with pressure from Wall Street to get its financial act together, Amazon is resorting to tactics that may help it make more money, and the hardball play will likely continue.

As MarketWatch put it, “Amazon.com Inc. has apparently decided that when the going gets tough, the company will play tougher.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s powerful fencing partners will back down.

Hachette’s Pietsch sent a response to every email inquiry explaining Hachette’s pricing model, and saying that its ebooks are indeed cheaper than the print versions. He called on Amazon to stop the “sanctioning tactics” against Hachette’s titles.

This dispute started because Amazon is seeking a lot more profit and even more market share, at the expense of authors, bricks and mortar bookstores, and ourselves,” Pietsch wrote.